Two-minute impact
Shenandoah Finance Director Lisa Wasner brought the proposal before City Council on May 14, saying the city could provide a 1% discount to hotels on their taxes to the city if their hotel occupancy tax collections are filed before the 10th day of every month.
"The initiative behind this program was basically to make sure that we're getting all the documentation that we need. We're now going to be really strict with the exemption paperwork that they have to provide, and also with due dates," Wasner said. "Our staffs are both pretty small. So to handle all that is more of a task than you would think. So this is just to make sure that everyone's reporting correctly and they are paying on time."
Wasner said by receiving reports from hotels earlier, it will allow the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, Visit Shenandoah, to share the data with travel booking companies like Expedia to encourage additional tourism.
Hotel occupancy tax collections fund local tourism efforts through Visit Shenandoah, which in turn can drive visitor spending and contribute to the city’s sales tax revenue, officials said.
The cost
Wasner said the 1% discount is projected to reduce current HOT revenues by only $23,000 in 2025, but it could ultimately help promote hotels to get additional bookings and visits.
"More than 30 CVBs around the state are doing this," Visit Shenandoah Director John Mayner said. "From our perspective, we're trying to get the most complete information we can and get it to [the city] to utilize and to evaluate."
Wasner said the city has already collected roughly $1.1 million in hotel occupancy tax revenues in 2025, which follows a February report from the Shenandoah CVB which showed that Fiscal Year 2023-24 set a new record of $2.14 million in HOT collections for the city.
The action taken
Council members approved the resolution 4-1, with council member Ron Raymaker saying he was opposed due to a campaign promise to never "vote for any tax abatements or rebates."
